Guild Wars 2 - Legendary Weapons Suspended

[Myrthos]

TechRaptor have an article about the indefinite suspension of the development on a new set of legendary weapons for Guild Wars 2, which was originally scheduled to be released with the Heart of Thorns expansion.

The decision has created division in the community as fans rush both to defend and condemn ArenaNet for the removal of content felt promised by an expansion long-since purchased. O’Brien has taken to the forums in effort to defend the decision and point out the slew of features that did indeed launch with Heart of Thorns, including Guild Halls, new Elite Specializations, and The Revenant, an entirely new profession. For some, however, his defense has fallen on deaf ears in the wake of ArenaNet’s instances of over-promising on what exists now as unfinished raids and missing Fractals content and updates, both part of an expansion launched last year. This is in addition to the stagnation of Living World content and abundant, long-standing issues with WvW population imbalances.

More information.

 

[Drithius]

HAH!

Considering Legendary Weapons are often considered this shallow MMO's 'endgame', this is a slap in the face to people who shelled out $50 for this expansion. I'm guessing the gimmicks of Heart of Thorns didn't lure enough old players back to the game and they've been forced to cut back on staff.

Since NCSoft was behind City of Heroes' unceremonious and unexpected closure, I for one won't cry any tears.

 

[azarhal]

The expansion didn't look to have enough content for the price tag so I didn't buy it, then they started to focus on raid and esport which totally turned me off.

They lost a lot of devs in the last 6 months too (not layoff, Amazon Game Studios is stealing allmost of them).

 

[Drithius]

I returned briefly to the game in the month or two leading up to the expansion's launch. The game's new content (up until then) wasn't my cup of tea whatsoever, focusing on gimmicky gameplay and not enough on shoring up the game's weaknesses - social aspect (or lack thereof) and character building. The expansions looked to be more of the same with its "flying" gliders, so I didn't bother - especially at the price points, ranging from $50 - $100.

 

[lostforever]

From what I understand legendary weapons are really new skins with fancy animations. They don't give any stats advantage so why does it need 6 devs to work on it?

 

[azarhal]

It's a good question isn't it. They should only need 4: one artist, one programmer, one animator and one designer. No idea what the other two do: a sound engineer and a manager?

It's clearly not full time work at the speed they have been making them.

 

[lostforever]

It's a good question isn't it. They should only need 4: one artist, one programmer, one animator and one designer. No idea what the other two do: a sound engineer and a manager?

It's clearly not full time work at the speed they have been making them.

Even 4 people seem be too much! I would have thought it would be couple of months job for an intern! I have seen hundreds of weapon skins in other games which look so much better than any of the current legendary stuff GW2 has and I highly doubt they are hard to make up.

 

[azarhal]

Even 4 people seem be too much! I would have thought it would be couple of months job for an intern! I have seen hundreds of weapon skins in other games which look so much better than any of the current legendary stuff GW2 has and I highly doubt they are hard to make up.

Big dev teams don't have people who do all the work from conceptual design to in-game programming. The total work might be low to make one weapon, but more than one person is going to work on it.

 

[lostforever]

Big dev teams don't have people who do all the work from conceptual design to in-game programming. The total work might be low to make one weapon, but more than one person is going to work on it.

I understand what you mean but if you read Mike O'Brains forums post, he says it can takes years for these 6 people to create all the new weapons. Sort of imply its their full time job. I would say it should take them months max for all the weapons combined!

 

[Carnifex]

Never played Guild Wars at all, don't know anyone that actually has out of about two hundred people that I know that enjoy mmo's. I cannot imagine anything like this ever happening in EQ1 or 2, the resounding screams from players probably would have destroyed the games.

 

[lostforever]

Never played Guild Wars at all, don't know anyone that actually has out of about two hundred people that I know that enjoy mmo's. I cannot imagine anything like this ever happening in EQ1 or 2, the resounding screams from players probably would have destroyed the games.

Lot more people are playing GW2 than EQ1 and EQ2 combined even at their hay days but that's by the by....

I know people are making big fuss about this but this is not huge issue since Legendary weapons are just skins. Yes these skins take lot of time and money to get but they are just skin. There is no game play advantage... On this Basis , I say SOE has pulled bigger crap than this.... Think of this as SOE not releasing an instance or what not with an expansion ...

 

[azarhal]

I know people are making big fuss about this but this is not huge issue since Legendary weapons are just skins. Yes these skins take lot of time and money to get but they are just skin. There is no game play advantage… On this Basis , I say SOE has pulled bigger crap than this…. Think of this as SOE not releasing an instance or what not with an expansion …

People are making a huge issue because the new Legendary set was promised as part of the HoT expansion and "factored in" the cost for it. In the end they released only 4 of the ~20 Legendary promised.

 

[Drithius]

I know people are making big fuss about this but this is not huge issue since Legendary weapons are just skins.

Not a huge issue for you perhaps. Considering the game has practically no endgame beyond grinding away for such skins, many players aren't going to bother sticking around when there's no carrot for them, despite how shallow it may be.

And, as Azarhal stated, people paid for them.

 

[Hexprone]

From what I understand legendary weapons are really new skins with fancy animations. They don't give any stats advantage so why does it need 6 devs to work on it?

Actually it was going to be a whole new game system.

Lots of people dislike that getting a legendary currently just takes money and luck. The new system was intended to make your legendary feel more personal and heroic by making it the culmination of a series of crafting challenges and quests.

I don't know the details as I haven't played for a long while, but the planned addition was considerably more than just a few new weapon skins.

 

[Carnifex]

Wait.....if the weapons don't increase damage, what's the point? Are they simply appearance items? If so, who would even care, lol.

 

[azarhal]

Wait…..if the weapons don't increase damage, what's the point? Are they simply appearance items? If so, who would even care, lol.

They had the better stats at launch, then Anet added Ascended weapons with the same stats. Legendary are "shinier" though. They have custom animations effects and can alter your character appearance with aura and other stuff.

 

[Hexprone]

Wait…..if the weapons don't increase damage, what's the point? Are they simply appearance items? If so, who would even care, lol.

I liked the cosmetic endgame.

Legendaries do have a very small stat advantage over other endgame gear, but they are intended primarily for bragging rights. One of GW2's founding design ideas was to avoid power creep by placing a hard cap on how much gear can boost your stats. This means that a new level 60 can join high-level dungeons, PvP etc on an equal basis right away rather than having to grind their way to the fancy gear before getting to play with the big kids.

Of course, there's still grind -- largely because MMO players want grind -- but I think the basic idea of having all max-level players on a level playing field was a good one.